Refugee and IDP Women’s Access to Citizenship – Experiences of South Asia and Elsewhere” (2 December 2007) 

In the context of the Refugee and IDP women’s access to citizenship it was felt that the issue is double edged and needs to be analysed from legal perspective where the state policies bear the overarching role followed by an understanding of the way the refugee and IDP experience is being a subject of “scrutiny” in the global world in terms of securitisation of citizenship issues. The participants were divided into two groups. Participants of Group 1 made various presentations on the theme “State Policies towards Immigrant or Internally Displaced women’s access to citizenship to means of protection and shelter in host societies”. Participants of Group II focused on "Globalisation, policies of security and the immigrant women".  
The main thrust of the discussion in group- I revolved around legal aspects of access to citizenship rights, rights to asylum and registration processes were discussed in detail.  Participants from Europe noted that many European countries are increasingly closing their doors to asylum seekers.  New laws restricting the right of immigrants to apply for asylum have applied in most of the European countries since the end of cold war. The situation has only got worse in the aftermath of the 9/11 incident. There has been noticeable growth in an overly restrictive application of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, coupled with a formidable range of obstacles erected by states to prevent legal and physical access to their territory. Most of the European and Western countries seemed to have adopted discriminatory citizenship laws and have made it difficult for the refuges to obtain the citizenship of their country of asylum. For example, Refugees in Britain now have to pass a citizenship test in order to acquire the British 

citizenship. Participants from South Asia noted that there have been some positive legislative developments in certain South Asian countries. Namely there have been developments in Sri Lanka and Nepal with regard to citizenship of IDP/Migrant women. The Sri Lankan parliament in 2003 passed the grant of citizenship act enabling 300,000 persons of Indian Origin to acquire Sri Lankan citizenship and recently in Nepal, the legislation was amended to enable women to pass their citizenship to their children.  Despite these positive developments, participants also noted that there are practical difficulties that continue to place women IDPs’/Migrants in vulnerable position. For example, in Nepal women IDPs are still very much dependent on their male relatives to obtain the citizenship certificate. South Asian Participants also noted that Registration of children in women headed household as well as other aspects of children’s rights in situations of displacement continues to be a major problem.
From participants’ presentations, it was clear that women face particular difficulties in obtaining citizenship and are more vulnerable to administrative delays and exploitation.  Therefore participants recommended that women IDPs/Migrants need to be recognized as a special group when it comes to citizenship issues.
Group II participants made the observation that the debates around globalisation have focused on national security, security of certain classes, security of spaces, security of employers and security of state. The official discourses around globalisation have masked, bypassed and overridden equally, if not more important aspects of security, such as human security, security of gender and security of livelihood.
To start with, the debate around globalisation has been preoccupied with providing security for certain classes. Globalisation has privileged certain classes and has ensured security for some classes while neglecting to enquire about the